NaNo Muse Nudge

I prefer the limited third person POV--only what my POV character knows or thinks or witnesses is allowed even though he, she, they is used instead of I. But that is a very limiting viewpoint to be stuck in for a first draft effort. It means a lot of interrupting the word flow to make notes outside the draft whenever something occurs to me that ought to be in the story but can't be imparted via my POV character. Those interruptions tend to trigger a blockage of the flow for hours if not days or more.

So I'm experimenting with alternating POV to whichever suits the thought I need to note the best and making whatever observations necessary right in the draft with full knowledge that these sentences or paragraphs won't remain in later drafts but I can be confident the thought won't be lost.

When the thought involves general elements of plot or setting or theme I switch to omniscient third person. I find it freeing to know these sections are destined to be cut. But more important, I find that this swooping out of my POV character's head and into the stratosphere of the storyworld where no fact, event, place or time is off limits helps me see the story as a whole, to turn it like a faceted jewel between thumb and forefinger.

Or, for an alternative metaphor, to zoom in and out like in a Google map or a CSI 3D graphic--in to the level of electron orbits inside molecules and out to the orbit of the moon. A global perspective.

I'll talk about how I find switching to first person POV helpful in another post. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe later this week.